Broken businessman John Linley never got over losing the company he loved 20 years ago, but now his son has brought it back to life.

In 1984 Mr Linley was made redundant as managing director of the Alnwick Brewery, which went out of business two years later.

It was a hard blow for a man whose lifetime's work had been devoted to the trade and who founded the Alnwick Rum company in 1966. With the collapse of the Alnwick Brewery, the famous Alnwick Rum label disappeared from the shelves.

Mr Linley's son Ian, 44, thought the recipe for the blend of rums that gave Alnwick Rum its distinctive flavour was lost to history when his father died two years ago.

But as he sorted through some papers belonging to his father he came across the recipe and knew immediately how he was going to spend the rest of his working days.

"Among the papers were old rum recipes which dated way back.

"I had thought my father had disposed of them, because he did not talk much about the company at all after he was made redundant.

"When I had them I became determined to obtain the rights to the name, which became available earlier this year.

"It was quite difficult because it was 20 years ago that the rum was last on sale and some of the companies that made rums that went into the blend have gone out of existence."

More information about Alnwick Rum is available on www.alnwickrum.com.